Finding #11

Photo courtesy John Winters

Thanks to The Boren Foundation, and Jack and Karen Kay Leonard for making this website possible.

Improving Kids' Environment is a partner in the Citizen's Healthy Homes Initiative with the Concerned Clergy and the Citizen's Multi-Service Center. As a partner, IKE wrote a Needs Assessment for the Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood on Indianapolis' Near Northeast Side. The Needs Assessment was published on August 23, 2003. Back to Main Report

Indianapolis Citizen’s Healthy Homes Initiative

Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood Needs Assessment

Other Neighborhoods Need CHHI Model

Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood, like all neighborhoods, is unique in many ways. But the housing problems, the environmental hazards, and the external pressures that undermine the neighborhood are not unique.

The CHHI model relies on youth and community residents to learn about and identify housing problems in their neighborhood. By taking photos of the homes, evaluating those homes for hazards and coordinating the results with housing code enforcement and property ownership information, the CHHI model provides a tangible and effective method to provide the information residents and neighborhoods need to make improvements – improvements for safer, healthier and more affordable housing.

The CHHI model is a perfect complement to the City of Indianapolis’ new inventory of abandoned homes. The City has contracted with students at Ball State University to catalog and photograph the vacant, boarded and abandoned homes in the City. This inventory will provide a snapshot of the situation. The City will update the inventory by tracking homes that have electricity disconnected for more than six months.

Where there are only a few abandoned homes, the City’s approach will be sufficient. However, in neighborhoods where homes have low values and residents little discretionary income, the resident’s fear that the City’s approach will only lead to more vacant lots could become a reality. In these neighborhoods, a more thorough evaluation of all homes to identify those that are at risk of becoming abandoned as a result of ongoing code violations is essential. This evaluation must be coupled with a combination of code enforcement, technical guidance, and financial assistance to prevent more homes from becoming abandoned.